


Shoot the Arrow

by Nellosel



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, also I write Victor's name as Viktor becos I CAN, this is cute I think lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 12:46:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9608150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellosel/pseuds/Nellosel
Summary: There were so many things to know about each other, and apparently, an arrow tattoo was one of them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Please don't be alarmed by this fic, it's unbeta'd. Pictures I used for inspiration for the tattoo: [this one](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/bb/40/3c/bb403cb331ea1dc9a82795f5f1453463.jpg) and [this one](http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/boyang-jin-of-china-yuzuru-hanyu-of-japan-and-takahito-mura-of-japan-picture-id499014248).

The first time Viktor saw Yuuri’s tattoo was when he accompanied Yuuri on a run.  
Yuuri was running up the stairs at the Castle. He was really struggling at the top of the steps, but he was steadily nearing the end of his run. His breath came heavily, and he was swinging his arms front and back, trying to give himself even more momentum as if he were hoping to fly up the last meters instead of running.  
In that swinging motion his sleeves rode up his arms, and that was when Viktor spotted something dark against Yuuri’s creamy white skin.  
He didn’t see it for long, only a split second, as Yuuri swung by him, pushing himself up the remaining steps, just to lean heavily against his knees, trying to breathe as deeply as he could.  
Viktor didn’t even see it long enough to make it out what the thing was on Yuuri’s skin, and as Yuuri was dragging himself away to sit down on one of the benches and drink his water bottle dry, he decided not to push it.  
He spotted the dark blotch on Yuuri’s skin multiple times during his workout. Unfortunately he couldn’t ever see it clear: it was either Yuuri’s clothes, or the way he turned, that blocked Viktor from see what exactly that thing was. Yuuri was also really focused on his workout, so he didn’t want to disturb his mental state by asking questions. He was completely in the zone, and Viktor was happy to see him so.  
There would be other opportunities to ask, he figured.  
***  
That opportunity came later when they were both sitting in the huge tub at Yu-topia, soaking their battered muscles in the warm water. It was at the end of a long day, and an even longer night: Minako-sensei wanted to know all about the programs Viktor was choreographing for Yuuri, and as she got drunker during the evening, the topic turned more over to the phone numbers of skaters that Viktor and Yuuri supposedly possessed. Yuuri was much better at redirecting the conversation, safely away from this topic, than Viktor was: he guessed it was because of the years of practice Yuuri had with his teacher.  
Yuuri lifted his right hand to card his fingers through his wet hair, and that was when Viktor noticed it again.  
“Oh!” he exclaimed, grabbing Yuuri’s elbow and turning his arm towards him. “I wanted to ask what this was!”  
Though then, it was really quite obvious that Yuuri had a tattoo on his arm. Yuuri stopped for a second in movement, and then drew his arm away. Viktor released his elbow and apologized: it was quite a sudden move from him to grab Yuuri’s elbow. He then turned towards Yuuri, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.  
Yuuri sighed, and smiled his little depreciating smile.  
“This is just a tattoo,” he said. “I got it a few years ago. It’s nothing really.”  
Viktor rolled his eyes.  
“It can’t be nothing! It’s on your skin. Even if you only got it because it looked nice, or you were drunk, that’s still a story.”  
Yuuri blushed a little, scratched his head, and mumbled something about it not being like that at all. The quiet moments stretched along: Yuuri didn’t feel like speaking then, and Viktor didn’t want to push him to speak either. They both sank back into the water, Viktor thinking about the tattoo on Yuuri’s arm, trying to guess what the meaning of it was. Or did it even have a meaning? Was it just something pretty Yuuri could look at when he looked at his arm?  
Somehow Viktor thought it wasn’t that. Yuuri did things with a meaning behind the actions.  
So he waited for Yuuri to put his thoughts together.  
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Yuuri said after a while, when Viktor was on the verge of actually starting to ask questions he was that impatient. Viktor sighed quietly in relief and turned a little towards Yuuri.  
Yuuri was holding his arm up in front of his face, so Viktor could finally get a good look at the tattoo itself. It was an arrow tattoo, simple yet intricate. The arrowhead was colored in black, and on the shaft there was a circle placed. Upon further examination Viktor realized it was a stylized version of a medal, and after a while he also figured out that it was the NHK Trophy’s golden medal. Only the first two numbers of the year were tattooed on, the rest was just skin. The arrow ended in a simple feather, while there were lines waving from the medal to the end of the arrow, delicately hugging the shaft.  
“It’s beautiful,” Viktor sighed. Yuuri smiled a little, and glanced at Viktor from the corner of his eye.  
“Isn’t it?” he replied. “I really like it, still. It’s been a few years.”  
Another long moment of silence hung between them. Yuuri raised his other hand to lightly brush the tattoo with his wet fingertips, lost in his thoughts.  
“When I first became eligible to compete in the NHK Trophy,” he said after a while, “I was so incredibly happy and excited. I worked hard to get my scores up, and when they were high enough, and I got the notice, I just felt like I was flying on the ice, I was so happy. That’s why I got this tattooed,” he paused a little, to push his thumb into the medal, “to remind myself where I am aiming. I am an arrow, waiting to be shot into the best of the best in the figure skating scene. Back then it was only the NHK Trophy… After that, it was the Series Final I wanted to win, once I became decent in competing. Even then, I liked that it was the NHK medal… It reminded me of where I’m coming from.” Yuuri stopped and took a deep breath. He brushed tattoo again.  
“It took about three years for this tattoo to become bittersweet. I never got as far as winning the GP gold. I stayed as mediocre as I ever was. I was never the arrow, as it seems.”  
Those words bit into Viktor and left him feeling quite uncomfortable. It was a long time since he last thought anything similar to what Yuuri was saying then. In his world, winning gold came as naturally as breathing: he was struggling to imagine how it must have felt like to start out promising, only to fall to the ground.  
But for Yuuri, he wanted to try.  
He took Yuuri’s arm into his hand, more gently than before, and leaned down to press a short, chaste kiss against the warm wet skin. Viktor didn’t quite understand what drove him to do that, but in that moment, it felt appropriate. Yuuri didn’t pull his arm away either this time.  
“Don’t you worry a single moment, Yuuri,” Viktor said, first mumbling the words against Yuuri’s skin, and then looking up, into his eyes. “We’ll get you there. You’ll get to add the number to this tattoo. I promise you that.”  
Yuuri’s eyes started shining with unshed tears, his warm brown eyes sparkling like the thousands of stars above them on the night sky.  
“You promise?” he asked back, his voice quiet and breaking over the short question.  
“I absolutely do,” Viktor replied, his eyes unwavering, staring into Yuuri’s as if he were trying to anchor him to himself, or even the other way around. “I one hundred percent do.” He squeezed Yuuri’s arm that he was still holding in his hands, trying to reassure him as much as he could in that moment.  
Yuuri smiled, a few tears escaping from the corners of his eyes in that movement.  
“Okay,” he said.  
***  
Later that night, when Viktor was in bed and cuddling Makkachin, he brought the bath he took with Yuuri to the front of his mind. He kept thinking about what Yuuri said, how he pressed his finger into the medal, as if he were trying to will it into existence. How tired and beaten up he sounded when he talked about his failed skating life – which wasn’t a failure at all, if you asked Viktor.  
Viktor brought his right arm up in front of himself, brushing the spot where Yuuri’s tattoo covered his skin. This was so important Yuuri, however much he tried to play it down, and so now it was important to Viktor as well. He brought his arm down, to kiss the spot, just like he kissed Yuuri’s arm back in the bath.  
Oh, that arrow was still only just drawn back, waiting to be shot forward, and Viktor would make sure to help with that as much as he could.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you for reading this little silly thing! A bit more about the fic itself. I had this idea in my head of Yuuri having ONE meaningful tattoo that is just ... it holds a lot of things that is true to Yuuri. I'm not sure how much I succeeded in that, but I think I like the image I have in my head. I thought to place it somewhere on his skin where the costumes hide the skin, and since Yuuri apparently only wears sleeved costumes?? It would be somewhere on his forearm I imagine. So yeah, thanks for tuning in ahah. Also sorry if there are any mistakes, the fic is not beta'd. :D


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